Comunità vulnerabili: la rappresentazione del disastro di Crevalcore nella stampa italiana

This article investigates the mass-mediatic representation of a railroad disaster occurred in Crevalcore (Italy), and in a wider sense the representation of community sociosystemic vulnerability . The cooccurrence analysis showed that the word disaster is linked to four major areas: synonyms of disaster, accident dynamic and location, direct and indirect victims, and safety. The thematic analysis of elementary contexts allowed us to point out four main clusters: safety restoring and labour troubles, disaster scenario and accident dynamics, primary and secondary victims, and politics and public works. The chronological evolution of the clusters showed two phases: impact of the event (i.e., description of the disaster scenario and victims) and reactions to the event (first on behalf of the public opinion and the communities struck by the accident, and later of the political world). The lexical correspondence analysis yielded some differences in accordance with the chronological distribution of the articles. Finally, the analysis did not yield any significant thematic area that could be related to one or more of the following: questions about the liability for the event, emergency and first aid management, reconstruction after the event (which is taken into account only in a symbolic and not a material way). Key words: disaster, social representations, critical event, mass media.

Luigi Palestini, Gabriele Prati, Paola Villano, Anna Marcon, Comunità vulnerabili: la rappresentazione del disastro di Crevalcore nella stampa italiana in "PSICOLOGIA DI COMUNITA’" 2/2007, pp 81-95, DOI: